Welcome to two months of chaos

EXPECT a summer of roadworks and likely delays as nearly two months of essential road surface improvements begin on Monday.

Busy thoroughfares including Oxford Road and Basingstoke Road will be among more than 20 routes affected by the seven-week scheme.

Reading Borough Council says it is investing £450,000 in the work and has promised to minimise disruption.

Tom Crisp, the council’s lead member for transport, said: “Keeping the road network in good repair is essential to ensure the health and safety of all users – motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists.”

Mr Crisp continued: “The council will ensure that any disruption caused by these essential works is kept to a minimum and we’d like to thank the public for their patience in advance if journeys are disrupted.”

Contractors Tarmac Ltd National will be carrying out the improvements and will deliver notification letters to residents in affected areas.

The work has been scheduled as close as possible to the school summer holidays, a time when fewer cars are expected to be on the roads during rush hours, but some delays are still expected.

Tim Smith, the director of Reading’s City Centre Management Company, said pre-warning of the plans means the town’s businesses and shoppers should be able to cope with the roadworks.

He said: “The first thing is Reading is a thriving, busy regional centre so we are always going to have disruption, whether that is planned, essential work like this or the sporadic utility work which is much more damaging and disruptive and often seems insufficiently supervised.

“We can deal with this planned work by the council because we have a close dialogue with them.

“That is something we had during the A33/Rose Kiln Lane works and we have learnt from that that there is never, ever a good time to do this work.

“However, by doing this work in the summer, away from the festive season, this is the best option we are ever going to get and we need to recognise that.”

He concluded: “We will never find a time that will suit everyone but I can live with these planned works much more than unplanned utility work and it gets my support.”

The work, which will affect 22 roads across Reading, will take place between 8.30am and 11pm, depending on the roads involved, and will take 49 days “weather permitting”.